From cultural heritage to world heritage

The World Heritage List is based on the World Heritage Convention from 1972, which protects the world's irreplaceable cultural and natural heritage sites.

Did you know that the stroll from Christian III's dock, down Adelgade, then further along Kongegade, up to the castle, across the square and out through the Country Gate takes you straight through the heart of the kingdom of Denmark? You're walking right in the footsteps of kings and nobles. All travellers, high or low, who needed to get from one end of the kingdom to another, walked, rode or drove here.

The castle and the town were, in the Middle Ages, one of the king's important places to stay. Nyborg was, in many senses, the kingdom's most central place. Here the Danehof met, the parliament of the day, and Nyborg Castle was, in its heyday, the parallel of Christiansborg Castle of today, where the parliament meets in Copenhagen. In the rooms one can visit today at Nyborg Castle, decisions were made that had wide-ranging consequences for Denmark and neighbouring countries. The story of Nyborg Castle and town is unique, which is why the Municipality of Nyborg and the Museums of Eastern Funen have a vision to develop Nyborg Castle and town into a worthy candidate to be listed among the UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

What is world heritage? The World Heritage List is based on the World Heritage Convention from 1972, which protects the world's irreplaceable cultural and natural heritage sites. The convention is based on the idea that some cultural and natural areas are of especially great universal value and therefore must be part of all peoples' common heritage. The countries that have signed the convention have committed themselves to preserving and maintaining the sites that each member country has submitted to the World Heritage List.

It is the World Heritage Committee under UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) that is charged with selecting sites for the list and for studying how the sites already on the list are being preserved. Every year new places are listed, taken from the so-called tentative list, which is a sort of admissions list. The committee has ten criteria, having to do with culture (the first 6) and with nature (the last 4). At least one of these criteria must be met for a given site to qualify for the list.

In the spring of 2012, there were 936 sites on the list. Along with the title of World Heritage Site, a multitude of committments and duties follows, to protect and preserve the site, and to teach about it and its special qualities.

Denmark and World Heritage:

Denmark currently has three World Heritage Sites:

Roskilde Cathedral

The Monuments at Jelling

Kronborg Castle

In addition, the icefjord at Ilulissat, Greenland is on the list.

In Denmark, the World Heritage Sites are administered by the Heritage Agency of Denmark. It is an ongoing process to find new sites that are of such great significance that they could qualify to be included on the World Heritage List. On the Danish tentative list there are such sites as: the hunting grounds at Eremitagen (in the Royal Deerpark north of Copenhagen), Frederiksstad, Amalienborg Castle, the Wadden Sea, Stevns Cliff, the Moler Cliffs on Mors, Christiansfeld, the Trelleborg fortresses, 1000 years of agriculture in southwest Greenland and hunting grounds in Greenland.

All of Nyborg is dressed for the celebration, and the knights meet at the tournament in such great numbers as have not been seen since the Middle Ages in Nyborg. Experience the jousting tournament again, right here where it was meant to happen, in the authentic setting of Nyborg.